This invention relates to game apparatus and particularly such apparatus designed for a gambling game that includes a playing table. The invention further relates to slot machines and equivalent electronic gambling machines.
Conventional slot machines are well known and have been in use for a number of years in jurisdictions permitting the use of these machines. They include mechanically operated types in which reels are mechanically rotated to move and eventually stop to display a row of symbols. Each reel has a number of symbols illustrated thereon and arranged about its circumference. There are also video type slot machines in which the symbols are displayed on a CRT screen and are moved or changed by an electronic control system.
Known slot machines can have three, four or more reels. These known machines are generally played by one player alone and thus players of these machines tend to be isolated from one another. Thus, there would be advantages in providing a slot machine or similar gambling machine system which would involve a number of players playing the same machine or the same machine system in order to make play more enjoyable. Also, existing slot machines, because of their relative simplicity can become boring to play after a period of time and a more complex gambling machine involving different types of bets that can be placed by any player would be desirable.